[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFxPbG_CQUQ]

A few years ago, my mom was offered the opportunity to sign up for a credit card, which advertised that it planted a tree for each credit card it issued. At first, this sounds like a great idea. What could possibly be wrong with planting trees? Well, yesterday, Earth Day, she told me that a year or two ago, she read an article that shocked her.

I scoured the Internet for more information and found a 2007 article about it on CNN’s Money.com. As follows is a summary of the story:

About 15 years ago, farmers in Uganda were evicted by the government from their homes and farms so that the government could create space for The FACE Foundation, an organization that facilitates the planting of trees around the world. And it was this credit card company, among many other contributors, that funded the planting of many trees on this land. According to my research, many of these trees were not taken care of and died. And, in 2006, the farmers who had been fighting to get their land back finally succeeded and cleared the land once again so that they could farm, in the process chopping down about 500,000 trees.

Photo by Pilot International, LTD

According to the Money.com article sited above, this is just one example of the unfortunate events that surround trading voluntary carbon offsets, in which people and companies can plant trees to compensate for the carbon they emit. Similar projects put on by The FACE Foundation have taken place in Ecuador, Brazil and India. Not only is this a very sketchy business, it takes many years for the trees to grow big enough to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.

This is just a summary of what is going on though, and it does not include the gorey details. The innocent commitment to plant trees has killed a significant quantity of wildlife and people, don’t let your noble gestures do the same. Please be cautious of the organizations with which you work, and screen them vigorously.